I hope this continues. I am a HUGE proponent of legalization and a believer that the medicinal powers that it has have not even began to be fully realized.
And I don't smoke pot, frankly, I don't like being stoned (to each their own, just not my thing). But I would if I had an ailment I thought it would help.

I think I would feel better taking money from folks who earned theirs through weed related endeavours and adventures.

I sometimes feel hypocritical and kinda lame taking money from folks who earned theirs through Big Oil, and the Medical/Cancer/Big Pharma Industrial Complex, which is pretty much where all the wealth around here comes from.

I think the "Legalize Pot" crowd has been going about it the wrong way. People who are against potheads think medicinal and recreational are the same stuff, when they aren't. Well, not always. They should have been educating people all along, but the press covers mostly Spicoli types, which turns off a lot of people. They're prescribing it for epilepsy and, according to my friends' wife, it kicked her ass with only a couple of hits. She's not an amateur, either. For other ailments, it blocks pain/other symptoms, without the wastoid effect.

If DuPont and other manufacturers hadn't been in Congress' pockets in the '30s, we'd still be using hemp for a lot of things.

Not true.

How would you, as part of a government, justify to the people who aren't in favor of legalization, changing your position by 180 degrees? Would you just say you did it because of the tax revenue? Would you say you changed your collective minds? Would you say that you no longer agree with the reasons you made it illegal?

Making it legal for medicinal use should have been done decades ago, but this wasn't "sold" to the public. Making it legal because people want to get high is exactly the reason it hasn't been- it's a drug that some can't handle. If anyone can justify uses for tobacco, other than smoking/chewing, I haven't seen them but if the government was concerned about health risks, slapping a tiny warning on the pack doesn't seem to have made a difference.

BTW- the money and goods that are confiscated in drug raids and arrests are used to offset the costs of enforcement. They hold the evidence until the appeals process/time have been exhausted, but the local and Federal Law Enforcement agencies split the proceeds.

Can't handle it? You mean they FALL ASLEEP?

Bro, you are a victim of the Reefer Madness propaganda. Pot is more harmless than cigarettes, alcohol and religion combined.

Red herring in so many ways.

Yes they do take the proceeds and use them for more drug enforcement. And if that in itself, doesn't seem to rile all the conservatives, then any conservative or libertarian is a hypocrite. Especially when they talk about getting big government out of their lives.

I'm in the middle of the political spectrum but this march of confiscating property, most of it having nothing to do with "illegal" activity, and selling it for their own gain, to further their ability to take more property...rinse, lather, repeat...is plain effing wrong and self serving, not serving the greater good. It smacks of bureau corruption.

The bigger cost of the war on drugs is in the court and penal system. State and federal DEA enforcement budgets (regardless of whether their property seizures) is a pimple on the ass of a whale compared to the costs to our penal system.

It really is time society pulled its head out of its ass on this one. End the reefer madness myths, end the stoner lacking motivation myths (you on this board know who you are), quit telling me what I can do with my body on my own time. There are laws in place to deal with anyone who abuses anything (driving while intoxicated, stealing to propel your habit, etc...) Punish those crimes, and end the pursuit of the RED HERRING.

Perhaps getting back to the subject, is it true that marijuana plants grow faster and stronger, with better buds, if there's an audio system in the room playing The Grateful Dead all the time?

+1 On all accounts.

+1

But there is the LITTLE problem of private prisons, which operate for profit, and count on your politicians to keep enough stupid laws on the books to provide for lots of business for the Prison Industrial Complex

[Link: apfn.org]

No, I mean that once they get high, they want to get high all the time, rather than doing the things they normally would and should. I can give you the names of several, if you want. Would you rather I made a list of the wastoids from my high school who OD'd or committed suicide?

How old are you? You act like a teenager giving his dad shit over being told to not smoke pot. I smoked the shit, OK? I know people who wasted years of their lives getting high all the time and some did move on to different and harder drugs. Ever heard of this happening? Probably not, since you think this is like the quote that's often attributed to Ben Franklin, "Beer (or pot, in this case) is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy".

Never smoked cigarettes and they killed my parents, so you don't need to lecture me on those. Not religious and never watched Reefer Madness, so you can give up on those, too.

When I managed a car audio shop, we had a CD player connected to the stereo. One day, I played one by Oregon and after one particular sitar-heavy song, one of the guys stood up, looked at the other installer and said "Well, THAT explains a lot".

Just saying, and not totally defending the use of pot, but, I know a lot of brilliant, productive people who imbide.

Then there are those who don't fuction too well. Same can be said of booze though, and weed doesn't require a liver transplant.

So, all of the homes, cars, boats and anything else bought with the drug money should be kept by the dealers/cartel heads? Really?

If someone is caught driving a van with a welded steel box in the floor that contains over $900K in cash, is it likely that they're just carrying their life savings, or working for a drug dealer?

Next, you'll say it's the government's fault that the cartels and gangs kill so many people.

Stoners lack motivation- that's what they do. I'm not saying some people can lead very productive lives AND smoke pot, but as I wrote, I can give names of a lot of people who can't do both, preferring to get high. When they're not high, they're mentally deficient, having lost a lot of their ability to reason.

I haven't heard a lot of good reasons for pot to be used. I read a lot of people saying "it's not as bad as...." and "I know people who do well AND use pot"- I think we all do, but that's not a reason to use it.

Other than the substance abused and their medical problems, there's really not much difference between a hard core drunk and a hard core pot smoker. The pot smoker may not puke all over the place, may not pass out and they certainly don't act like a sloppy drunk, but their thinking and perception are very distorted.

Screw it- it's like talking to a wall.